More than ever, Yankees, Red Sox are mirror images

Apr. 18, 2008

Written by

Sam Borden

Journal News columnist

NEW YORK - They play the Match Game every night at Yankee Stadium before the top of the fifth inning. One fan is selected to watch the big screen out in right-center field, where he or she is shown nine covered squares with different Yankees underneath. The fan then has to remember which two squares are covering the same player. Guess right, win big prizes.

The Match Game is a nice distraction and, despite not having the inherent drama of the always-gripping Great Subway Race, stands as a particularly appropriate forum in which to consider the Yankees and Red Sox this season. Truth is, the two rivals are almost as identical as the Jorge Posada furtively stashed under square 5 and the one under square 7.

This is not something either team would necessarily admit. While the Yankees and Red Sox are often able to co-exist peacefully, there is the occasional flashpoint - like last night's seventh inning, when Kyle Farnsworth threw his first pitch of the game behind Manny Ramirez's head. This was suspicious since Ramirez had homered twice earlier, but Farnsworth claimed the ball slipped out of his hand, though he then casually mentioned moments later that, by the way, Alex Rodriguez had been hit by a pitch one night earlier. No further blood was spilled and Ramirez ultimately grounded out, but there is a certain combustibility with these teams that always feels at least minimally flammable.

There is also an alarming commonality. Similarities abound throughout the rosters and the Match Game links seem endless: Last night aside, Farnsworth is the Yankees' version of the Red-Alert Reliever, the pitcher who most Yankees fans find about as comforting as a tornado warning; thus, on the video board, he'd be connected to Red Sox walking disaster Julian Tavarez.

There are the aces, Chien-Ming Wang (19 wins last year) and Josh Beckett (20). There are the young starters, Phil Hughes (age 21) and Ian Kennedy (age 23) against Jon Lester (24) and Clay Buchholz (23). There are the dominant closers, Mariano Rivera (30 saves in 2007) and Jonathan Papelbon (37). There are big-salaried sluggers, Alex Rodriguez ($25 million a year) and Ramirez ($20 million).

The parallels run deeper. Quick, name the player and team: A solid eighth-inning setup guy, who's not particularly battle-tested but is still the most reliable non-closer in an otherwise iffy bullpen. Joba Chamberlain? That's a fair answer, since he's been dominant but only showed up in the majors late last season, yet it could just as easily be Hideki Okajima, who was brilliant for Boston in 2007 but has only been pitching in Major League Baseball for a few months longer than Chamberlain.

"There's a lot of similarities between us," said Jason Giambi, who - as the oft-injured and somewhat-aging corner infielder - could easily be linked with Boston third baseman Mike Lowell. "We do a lot of the same things on the field and I guess, if you look at it, we've got some kids in certain spots and so do they. It's strange how that happens,"

Stranger still is how the teams are perceived. There was a lot of talk at the beginning of this season about how this was going to be the year the Yankees' run of postseason appearances was going to end. The Red Sox would win the division, someone else - possibly from the AL Central - would cop the wild card and the Yankees would be at home come October for the first time in 13 years. It was the trendy pick.

Is that scenario possible? Of course it is. But it's just as possible that the Red Sox would miss out or that both teams find their way into the playoffs. If the biggest question marks for the Yankees are the performances of their young starters and the reliability of their bullpen (beyond the top two), why aren't the same questions as pressing for Boston? Why isn't it just as conceivable that Buchholz and Lester stumble as it is that Hughes and Kennedy won't be able to handle the expectations? Or that the Yankees' near-retirement pitcher (Mike Mussina) won't be able to muster a better year than the Sox's near-retirement pitcher (Tim Wakefield)?

Last night at the Stadium, Mussina was awful, Beckett was great and so was Ramirez as the Red Sox rolled to a 7-5 win. Of course, it wasn't all that different from last Friday at Fenway, when Wang twirled a one-hitter and the Yanks won 4-1.

These teams see each other a lot. They have played five times already this year now, and have 13 more games remaining, though they said goodbye last night until early July, when Boston returns to the Bronx.

Until then, they will always keep one eye on each other, same as they've always done. It will be much easier this year though. All either team has to do is just look in the mirror.